Thursday, November 27, 2003

Movie Review: Real Women Have Curves

Movie Review: Real Women Have CurvesRebecca Ryan Hunter

Since I grew up and got fat, I’ve always thought I was just stuck in some moment, like I was walking in someone else’s fat suit. I’ve never really accepted that this is my body, this is who I am. I have been working on body image for years, working to love who I am, and appreciating my figure as others do.

Today I am wearing a sexy outfit. It is tight and slinky and shows off this very real ampleness. Maybe it was finally seeing “Real Women Have Curves” that made me feel sexy in this outfit and in this body.

I loved this movie for every fat girl who thought she didn’t deserve a pretty dress or sex or happiness. I loved this movie for my curves and for the beauty that is in thin women, fat women, women with scars, women with breasts, and for the millions of women who do not look like models. And for the models who don’t even look like models.

My favorite part of the movie was where reality met with fiction—the scene when all of the women sewing in the hot warehouse took their clothes off and danced. I was sitting there scoffing the scene saying, “Come on! Women don't do that…But wouldn’t it be great if we did?” Then I realized that just 2 hours ago while I was getting my hair cut, I had lifted my shirt up like several other women in the salon.

There was a very pregnant woman in there who was scheduled for a c-section in two days and was really scared. Specifically, she mentioned how nervous she was about the scar it would leave on her body. My very large hairdresser whipped up her shirt and said, “Oh, the scar isn't so bad after a while.” Now, this woman had her c-section TWENTY YEARS ago!!! She showed her vertical cut, which actually healed nicely, but still looms large on the landscape of her body. Then her equally large sister whips up her shirt, pulls down her pants and says, “ROSE, don't scare her. They don't cut like that anymore. See? Now they do them horizontally!” It turns out that she’d had her cesarean birth TEN years ago and her horizontal cut is HUGE.

This poor pregnant woman looked so terrified, I stood up and said, “Don't listen to them,” and whipped my pants down, shirt up, and pulled up my belly flap to show my teeny little four inch scar to her and say, “This is how they do it now! This was just a year ago,” and she looked incredibly relieved.

So, I guess some women do show their bodies randomly when it can help other women. I, apparently, am one of them. Rent the movie and maybe you will be too.